In a meat-packing plant it is necessary to efficiently cut meat and the like soft material from bone, cartilage, and the like hard material. Obviously it is necessary to remove as much of the softer material as possible while leaving all of the harder material behind.
The standard tool for doing this is a knife which, if sufficiently sharp, can be guided along, for instance, the bone for a very clean cut. If, however, the knife is dull or the worker is not sufficiently skilled, meat will be left behind, an obviously undesirable waste. On the other hand if the knife is very sharp it is possible for even a skilled worker to cut into the bone or other harder material chips of which will, therefore, become mixed with the meat.
If the standard butcher's bandsaw is used for this operation the likelihood of getting hard material mixed in with the soft material is even greater, as such a saw can cut through bone or the like virtually as easily as it cuts through meat or fat, so that although the cutting operation is very smooth and easy, the likelihood of contaminating the cut-off soft material with the hard material is greatly increased. The use of such a power tool also requires a high degree of skill from the worker.